Deewana is the story of beautiful young Kajal (Divya Bharati), who falls in love with a famous pop singer, Ravi (Rishi Kapoor). Ravi is a popular pop-singer in the region, and has many fans, of both sexes. One of his fans is a beautiful young woman named Kajal, who is in love with Ravi and his songs. When Ravi meets Kajal, he too falls in love with her, and soon both get married. They marry and are happy, but their dreams are shattered when Ravi’s scheming uncle (Amrish Puri) sends his henchmen to beat Ravi and throw him off a cliff to his certain death. Kajal, now a widow, lives with Ravi’s mother;
One day, while crossing the street, Kajal’s mother-in-law is knocked down by the reckless, spoiled son of a rich industrialist, speeding on his motor-bike. Raja (Shah Rukh Khan) is at once smitten by the lovely young widow and begins to single-mindedly pursue her until he wins her mother-in-law’s approval to marry the reluctant Kajal. Who still grieves for her beloved Ravi. Raja, determined to earn Kajal’s love, becomes a responsible husband and eventually wins her love. But wait. This is Bollywood! Who should return now but the unfortunate Ravi, searching for his lost family. Now Kajal is torn between her first love and her new one. Who will she choose?
Deewana is the film that catapulted Shah Rukh Khan to filmi stardom in India, so being the huge SRK fan that I am, I was excited to see it. Being rather new to Hindi films at the time, I spent the first 15 minutes or so waiting for the leading man to come onscreen. Then it dawned on me; I was already looking at him: Rishi Kapoor. After about 2 hours of the middle-aged, pudgy, personality-deprived Rishi, the villain, Amrish Puri, was starting to look pretty hot to me. So you can imagine how good Shah Rukh looked when he finally burst on to the screen. No wonder Indian audiences loved him, for rescuing them from such an awful film!
The fact that Rishi Kapoor was ever a romantic leading man is still a mystery to me. The guy has the looks and personality of a wet sponge. That his scenes as a pop star were laugh-out-loud ridiculous isn’t entirely his fault, however. This film has some really great songs by Nadeem Sharavan like Aisi Deewangi by Alka Yagnik, Vinod Rathod, Teri Isi Ada Pe Sanam by Kumar Sanu, Sadhana Sargam and my favourite song Teri Umeed Tera Intezar by Kumar Sanu, Sadhana Sargam.
The choreography of this film makes everyone’s dancing look like some kind of spastic fits. This is a silly film with lousy directing that has only one redeeming quality. You guessed it Shah Rukh Khan. With this peepy song Koi Na Koi Chahiye by Vinod Rathod. He’s fresh and bursting with energy and charm, and he completely steals the last 45 minutes or so of the film. If you don’t die of boredom during the first 2 hours, you’ll be well rewarded with his charismatic performance.